Godfrey McHugh remained with the coffin during the swearing-in. McHugh had played a major role in the argument about immediate takeoff that took place after the Kennedy party boarded the aircraft. For about ten minutes, McHugh, like the rest, remained unaware that Johnson was aboard, and issued repeated orders to the pilot to take off. Manchester wrote that he considered flying the plane himself. When McHugh learned the reason for the delay — that the new president was aboard and waiting to be sworn in — he snapped: “I have only one President, and he’s lying back in that cabin.” Angered by Johnson’s behavior, and feeling that the casket of the dead Commander-in-Chief should not be unattended, McHugh returned to the tail compartment, and at 2:38, when Johnson took the oath, was standing rigidly at attention, by the casket.
David S. Lifton